Krausers Bridge

Information and Findings From Pennsylvania's Historic Bridge Inventory

Discussion of Bridge

The 2 span, 48'-long, brick arch bridge, built in 1905, has fieldstone spandrel walls and parapets. It is supported on stone pier and abutments with U-shaped wingwalls and parapets enclosing the approach roadways. In Pennsylvania, the brick arch was never a widely popular bridge type, with over two-thirds of the 25 extant examples from 1864 to 1908 in the three southeastern counties of Chester, Delaware, and Philadelphia. A cluster of 9 examples in Chester County date from 1901 to 1908. Chester County has more brick arch bridges than any other county in the state. They were built under the supervision of Chester County Engineer Nathan R. Rambo, who favored masonry arches at a time when other county engineers were turning to reinforced concrete. The choice of brick arch bridges reflected as much a desire to build a bridge type that required little in the way of formal engineering design or calculations, as it did an aesthetic decision. The handsome brick arch bridges offered low maintenance costs and permanency. Complete and particularly well detailed examples are technologically significant in the county and regional contexts.

Discussion of Surrounding Area

The bridge carries a 2 lane road over a stream in a rural setting on a road that is on the north boundary of Marsh Creek State Park. Marshall Road passes under the Pennsylvania Turnpike, approximately 300' to the northeast. Woods and fields are to each of the bridge's quadrants. Approximately 1/2 mile to the southwest is a late-20th-century residential subdivision. The setting does not have historic district potential.

Bridge Considered Historic By Survey: Yes